Slavery in America, was never abolished. Nice little loophole in the amendment.

[Separation]

Ok so here is the 13th Amendment verbatim

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.[1]

Notice how it can be used as punishment for a crime. Now Fast forward to today and the Prison Farms in the South.

American Plantation Prisons

The issue of police brutality and racism is more than what is presented by the media today. This is an American Institution fully supported by our government.

[lonestarnot]

1. government allowing a take over by private industrial prison industry. Privatization slave labor Jan

leather Brewer and ilk of the same cloth.

[malaise]

2. K & R

for truth

[Igel]

3. Or perhaps it's "involuntary servitude" that's being limited by the following clause.

I'm not sure how to reconcile chattel slavery with most cases of prison labor.

That's the problem with some grammar. Does the modifying clause apply to both conjoined nouns (or verbs) or just the closest? Takes a bit of good will and looking at the legislative history, unless you think that between speaker and hearer it's the hearer who really has the final say. That whole "author's intent fallacy" nonsense often still gets applied (at least by reasonable jurists) to the law.

[gabeana]

4. Very good points

This what the book Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II is about

if you haven't read it already here is a link
https://www.amazon.com/Slavery-Another-Name-Re-Enslavement-Americans/dp/0385722702/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471473073&sr=8-1&keywords=slavery+by+another+name

[TeamPooka]

5. You should read the 2009 Pulitizer Prize winning book Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of

Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II is a book by American writer Douglas A. Blackmon.
Great book, very maddening though
https://www.amazon.com/Slavery-Another-Name-Re-Enslavement-Americans/dp/0385506252/ref=mt_hardcover?_encoding=UTF8&me=

PBS made a documentary about it too
Watch it here:
http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/watch/